Paul McCarthy’s Low Life Slow Life: Part 2
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
California College of the Arts
San Francisco, CA
27 January – 30 May 2009

by Tonya Warner

“Low Life Slow Life” is not a show of the work of Los Angeles – based conceptual/performance artist Paul McCarthy.  Nor is it a show about his work either, rather it is a show about Paul McCarthy.  As the curator, he sees this exhibition as showing “memories of his own career” from 1970 to the present.

McCarhty’s work focuses on the messiness of everyday life and the absurdity of a pop culture that barely masks the grotesque mundane.  From his intensely physical actions in the 1970s to his more current controversial sculptural works, McCarthy tests his viewers’ emotional limits and sense of decency.  Visceral and physical, his works deal with our base emotions, reactions, and culture.  He delights in the disturbed and disgusting, employing the unnecessarily and absurdly grotesque with a sense of humor.

None of this, however, is present in the gallery at CCA. The works collected here are chosen more from the standpoint of an observer than a participant.  The space, in fact, felt rather sterile and empty – not at all what I expected from McCarthy – there was nothing in the least obscene or over-the-top to be seen.  Instead, we are presented with inexplicable conceptual works that are tinged with a melancholic nostalgia.

For instance, Howard Fried’s piece “All My Dirty Blue Clothes” (1969-2009) consists of blue clothing tied together on the floor of the gallery, with a table, chair and laptop, sitting in the corner and some faint purplish squares painted on the wall.  BUT WHY??  All meaning that this piece once might have contained has since been sucked dry by the distance of time and the lack of context. 

The same can be said of Dennis Oppenheim’s “Wishing Well” of 1973.  The work consists of a conveyor belt delivering pennies into a bucket of water. Originally, when this work was presented, a participant was supposed to be outside the gallery, pushing against a brick wall in the hopes of passing through it – aided by the pennies dropping into the water (?).  As an exploration of futility and the ineffectiveness of wishing, it is successful, however, at the time of my visit, there were no pennies coming down the moving conveyor belt and certainly no one standing outside– just the remnants and documentation of a long since completed performance.  Oppenheim is known for employing enigmatic systems to undermine an obejct’s sculptural status, however, what happens when these systems are removed?

As well, with Rachel Khedoori, whose 1993 untitled piece is the most recent, one is left puzzled.  There is evidence that something has transpired here, but we are given no legend to begin decoding the what and why of it.  Nor are we compelled to – these remains seem empty, like detritus left behind after a performance.

Actions that were once symbolic are now cryptic and dated, their movements inert and impotent.  What is in the gallery is commodified remnants – objects divorced from context that are none-the-less documents allowing the works some semblance of longevity and monetary value.  There is a sense that such an exhibition truly needs the supporting structure of the academic institution.  It needs the admiration of professors who are trying to explain how things were “back in the day,” to pass along this period and artistic line of thinking to younger aspiring artists.  Too bad the objects appear out-moded, impotent, and a little sad in their inability to relate to the present.

http://www.wattis.org/exhibitions/mccarthy2

http://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/20/paul-mccarthy/images-clips/

http://www.dennis-oppenheim.com/